In Which M.P. Fitz recommends Fantasy.
Why you should read Tom Schecter's Shieldbreaker Saga.
My dearest readers,
Tom Schecter is a gotdamn gem and you will—
Deep breath…
Science Fiction is my favorite thing to read, it’s what I write (along with horror), but I read widely. That said, Fantasy, as a genre, has to meet a certain high bar for me to pay attention to it. I am personally not happy if an author is merely playing in Tolkien’s sandbox, and too many indie Fantasy authors are alt-right boot-lickers interested only in the aesthetics of the genre, like it’s only the wallpaper that makes it valid. It has to be good and original for me to read. It has to be spectacular for me to recommend it.
has written that spectacular fantasy novel.I don’t say that lightly.
The Sheildbreaker Saga starts with his book, The Last of the Etela, which he has just released in paperback form (you should buy it). The prose is as sharp as a bastard sword, the pace quick as cavalry, and the political intrigue deeper than these similes. Know that when you read Tom, the amount of historical research that went into his stories should give him an honorary degree in that topic. War is not just tragic, it’s messy— and the characters are never better for it.
If you are tired of waiting for George R. R. Martin to get around to finishing his A Song of Ice and Fire series (which is unlikely, given that he still writes on a DOS version of WordStar 4.0 and he is now 76 years old) I am telling you now that Tom’s series is what you want to jump onto while you can still say that you read it when it was on the ground floor. Full stop.
Kareva will be name on every fantasy nerd’s tongue, I promise (don’t even get me started on Kivli, she’d give Rabia a run for her money). Find out why and read the first chapter here.
One by one, the tribes of the Etela have fought the new power and been destroyed. Now, only the Hodrir remain.
Kareva has been preparing to become the chieftain of the Hodrir since his older brother was executed for rebelling against their father six years ago. He is young, unknown, untested, and—unbeknownst to anyone else—haunted by the bloody, vengeful specter of his brother.
As the enemy approaches, Kareva will have to reckon with his own demons, and with the shadows of his brother’s failed rebellion, in order to give his people and their way of life any hope of survival.
I will see you later this month with another short story of mine. In the meantime, read one of the best Fantasy books to grace the genre in a decade. I’ve promised that I would do a live reading of one of my short stories on Substack while wearing a lucha libre mask once fifty paperback copies of The Last of the Etela are sold. You can make that happen…
Stay hoopy, froods,
-M.P. Fitz
M.P. Fitzgerald writes darkly humorous sci-fi for dream criminals. He wrote A Happy Bureaucracy and recommends Fantasy books once a decade, and only if they KICK THE MOST ASS!
KIVLI IS SO SCARY I WANT HER TO STAB ME!
Fuck, dude. Thank you so so much.